this post contains affiliate linksReflecting the gentle transition of the seasons in our home is something I’ve unconsciously done for years and long before it became a POV reel hook on Instagram. What happens now feels more like a subtle creative conversation between what’s happening outside in nature and what lives inside the house with us. The formula isn’t four switches a year at set times in the calendar – instead I prefer to be led by when the weather starts to change and follow the cues set by nature. There’s a marked difference in how the living room feels as we move from summer into autumn but the tweaks from autumn to winter are more subtle – the same goes for winter into spring and then onward into summer.
Thankfully the ways in which I’ve gone about it have evolved over time too. As the mother of a young child, past me would get to October and go to town on way too many pumpkin related items for autumn. Some of which I can blame on wanting to instil fun childhood traditions… some I blame on Instagram trends. Thankfully, taste changes and so years later, various autumnal trinkets were passed to the village charity shop. But just so I don’t feel too smug that our house is now an orange plastic free zone, as we approach Halloween, some of it occasionally pops up in their seasonal window displays – including a gold skull I was once gifted by a reputable interiors brand - a source of much mirth for the rest of the Start household. Me? Not so much.
Why Make Any Seasonal Changes In The Home?
The season will turn whether we want it to happen or not. When it comes to autumn, saying goodbye to summer always leaves me cloaked in nostalgia and this only seems to increase as the years and life chapters pass. Last weekend I saw a post on Instagram from an account called @countryside.therapy and the words within it felt like they’d been pulled from deep inside my soul..
“There comes a time in life when autumn feels like more than just a season. You start wondering how many more years you’ll get to see the leaves turn beautiful colours, feel the first chilly breeze, or listen to the geese passing overhead. And suddenly, a simple October afternoon becomes a precious moment you wish you could hold onto a little longer.”
Leaning into this kind of sentiment, embracing the changes that come with every season and reflecting the feeling of them in our home feels like the way forward. That and appreciating that we still have the concept of seasons at all.
Let The Changes Be Inspired By Nature
Using the colour palettes, textures and botanicals that appear outside as a guide is a good place to start and help me to feel grounded and still connected with nature… even if the weather sometimes makes it more challenging to be out in it.
This year, having begun my late-starter gardening journey, I’ve paid much more attention to the changing colours in the garden and what the plants are doing than in previous years. Despite what your Instagram feed might suggest, it’s not a fast track from lush greens to burnt orange and brown by way of a pumpkin spiced latte. The Cosmos flowered late and as we began cutting them back, I filled vases to sit on the windowsills. The Hydrangea Paniculata went from summer white, to a soft green and then developed a dusky pink tinge around their outer leaves. Unlike the Strong Annabelles, you can cut the flowers from these instead of having to let them die back on the plant. Having a vase full of these gorgeous cone shaped blooms drying on the living room windowsill has been a joy to behold… and next to a lit candle, they felt like the epitome of a slow transition from summer to autumn.
Considered Seasonal Changes For An Autumn Home
When it comes to a home colour palette our backdrop is mostly neutral with elements of olive green, chestnut brown, creamy white and hazy blue hues. Each of those then have a number of tones that offer a good compliment or contrast which makes it easier to add seasonal hues as subtle accents. These can be swapped about from room to room or added in the smallest of ways. Flowers (faux and real), coloured dinner candles, cushion covers, a decorative bowl or vase, table linens, a rattan tray and blankets or throws can all suggest the tone of a season. The mood then morphs from autumn into winter and spring into summer without making drastic changes and needless purchases every year.
As we slowly come to the final stages of evolving the living room, I’ve been consciously gathering a few more tonal pieces to add to what I already have around the house. Apart from the bedroom, the living room is where we spend the most of our time, so most seasonal changes are focused there. By just adding the appropriate home fragrance or a small vase of flowers elsewhere, it feels like the rest of the house then flows in line with the general mood and feeling anyway.
Living Room Seasonal Details
Our sofa is linen which feels like a fabric for all seasons – in spring and summer any additional textures stay light and airy and in autumn and winter, thicker heavy wool and velvets make it feel cosier. Buying good quality cushion covers, throws in natural fibres where possible and re-purposing fabrics from past purchases is a good way to keep cost and consumption down.
Tones of blue and green enter in spring and summer and the blues are swapped for browns in autumn and winter. Hues of green stay throughout as it traverses both seasonal pairings and a few blue and white chinoiserie elements stay all year round…obvs.
Loving nothing more than a good coffee table faff, it’s easy to reflect the season there through candles, plants, flowers and the different hues of book stacks or a quick decorative bowl or object swap. I’ve already been to the farm shop for a few miniature gourds and squashes… each year I make it my mission to ensure I get the pick of the good stuff before the half term Halloween fiends descend!
We have some old brass church candle holders and these funky green glass ones. For autumn and winter the ivory table candles go away and out come these in green. I might try adding in some rich burgundy or dark brown candles come winter this year too.
The faux white hydrangeas get packed away and in their place for autumn are these faded green stems with autumn populus and dried poppy seed heads to make a seasonal arrangement. Once we hit winter proper I swap to the rich mulberry toned hydrangeas interspersed with a few willow twigs. It’s taken me a few years to build my Suffolk Nest collection and has required a small investment but if cared for and stored properly they last forever so I feel are well worth the spend.
Dried grasses in small vases adorn shelves in the bookcase and elsewhere about the house and I’ve also amassed a collection of teasels foraged from the beach over summers gone by. A reminder that even in the darkest months, summer at the coast eventually returns. In terms of the more practical but necessary stuff, the chimney is swept in early September and the log basket gets filled in readiness for the much anticipated first lighting of the wood burner. Having a basket stacked full of logs is one of my favourite autumnal updates.
the best of the seasonal rest
For me, an important part of a seasonal home is based around adapting daily rituals rather than introducing large numbers of physical objects. Theres a background of autumnal jazz, Nat King Cole and Nora Ephron-esque playlists on morning, noon and night. The darker mornings bring opportunities for a quiet, candlelit cup of tea or at the very least, making the all-important first cup of coffee in the glow of a portable table lamp positioned next to the coffee machine. Turns out my aversion to any light above head height extends to all rooms in the house now.
It’s a time of year for noticing how the light around the house changes too. Paying close attention to the early morning shadows in our bedroom and appreciating the golden tones as the sun rises from behind the trees. Catching any rays that briefly grace the back garden with a coffee outside and then, come the afternoon, sitting on the front step for a five-minute desk break, face turned towards the fleeting soft warmth of an autumnal day. As the evening darkness begins to creep in earlier, the sweetener is the process of making homemade soup, a spicy stew or something cooked low and slow that fills the house with comforting aromas, lighting the fire and getting into PJ’s even earlier.
If like me you’re in a period of evolving your surroundings to support new life chapters and have recently made changes to interiors, layout or decoration, take a look at this years autumn home edit and also The Seasonal Store for inspired gathering of seasonal pieces to incorporate into your home for years to come.
And by the way – if adding a knitted pumpkin or the occasional gold skull is your thing, there’s no shade from over here! Just be sure to pick a version with enough quirk to stand the test of time, thereby avoiding you walking past the local charity shop every October only to be greeted by the ghosts of autumnal cock-ups past…
A Seasonal Selection
